Asia Intelligence Brief — Tuesday, September 29, 2026

• The BSE Sensex fell 48 points and the NSE Nifty slipped 95 points on Wednesday. • Market declines were driven by sustained foreign fund outflows and elevated crude oil prices.

• Brent Crude oil prices approached $103 as uncertainty regarding the Strait of Hormuz countered a recovery in Saudi Arabian supply. • Asian markets showed mixed results, with the Nikkei gaining 1.13% and the KOSPI rising 0.51%, while the Sensex and Hang Seng declined.

• Thousands of Bangkok residents moved into emergency shelters on Sunday after days of heavy rain flooded homes and roads across the Thai capital. • Nearly 4,900 people were evacuated to shelters as flooding affected approximately 52,000 households.

• KuCoin published its regular summary of the top five cryptocurrency price gainers for September 30, 2026. • The report identified STAY, NAKA, SOON, RMV, and POND as the tokens with the largest percentage gains over the preceding 24 hours.

• Indian stock indices Sensex and Nifty hit six-month lows on Tuesday as a rising US dollar dragged down emerging market assets. • BSE-listed stocks lost a combined Rs 4.38 lakh crore in market value, with 190 stocks hitting 52-week lows within the first 90 minutes of trading.

• KuCoin published a daily market snapshot on September 29, 2026, listing the five cryptocurrencies with the highest 24-hour gains. • The top-performing tokens identified in the update were XDP, KAIO, HTR, PUBLIC, and HBAR.

• Fitch analyst Thomas Rookmaaker reported that Thailand's governance advantage over its regional peers has faded despite improvements in political predictability and debt outlooks. • World Bank governance indicators converted by Fitch show Thailand's percentile rank dropped from near the 60th percentile in the late 1990s to the low 40s.

• Equities are struggling to maintain their value as tighter financial conditions increase interest in downside hedges, which are investments used to protect against market drops. • Jose Torres, a senior economist at Interactive Brokers, noted that these conditions are emboldening bear investors who expect prices to fall.

• Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das described India as a bright spot during a Tuesday forum launch organized by the Delhi School of Economics and RIS. • India recorded average annual real GDP growth of 7.9% between 2021-22 and 2025-26, with growth reaching 7.8% in the first quarter of 2026-27.

• Brent Crude oil prices approached $107 recently as negotiations between the US and Iran stalled. • The Dallas Fed production index reached 29.5, indicating that US manufacturing output has strengthened.

• The Nifty 50 index is on track to record its worst September performance in eight years due to a deepening market sell-off. • The decline is driven by high US bond yields, a strong dollar, foreign portfolio investor outflows, and weakening domestic indicators like auto sales and railway freight.